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> I guess I could have tried computing magazines Here are some offline methods other people used to get such information: 1. magazines and "zines" 2. books

> I guess I could have tried computing magazines Here are some offline methods other people used to get such information: 1. magazines and "zines" 2. books 3. word-of-mouth (as you said) 4. clubs or meet-ups Online methods that pre-date google: 1. newsgroups (usenet) 2. yahoo groups 3. bbses 4. forums 5. msdn 6. other search engines, even ones that used categories like yahoo were sometimes effective. It just took longer to search to find exactly what you wanted 7. manufacturer websites. for example if you need the pin settings for a WD MFM or RLL disk drive, go to the WD website and look it up. --- It wasn't as bad as people think. It just took a long more time to find.

jasomill 5y ago
Additionally, when available, information was frequently of higher quality than is readily available online. Even today, it's probably easier to find detailed, accurate technical documentation for OpenVMS and z/OS — where developers can't just be expected to "Google it" — than it is for Windows, Linux, or Apple OSes. Moreover, pre-Internet, I never encountered a scenario where important documentation was only available in video form. At worst, you'd very rarely see consumer products bundled with a videocassette for users who couldn't be bothered to RTFM. Sharing information is certainly easier today, as magazines, user group memberships, long-distance BBS calls, and in-person conferences present a far more significant barrier to entry than the Web. The trend seems to be reversing, however, as more and more information once available over the Web now seems to be siloed in systems like Facebook and Discord that are neither searchable via Google nor regularly archived by the Internet Archive. What I wouldn't give for a "Usenet 2.0", i.e., a widely-used, persistent, open, distributed discussion system to reverse this trend.
a9h74j 5y ago
Anyone for the former Bits and Bytes bookstore in Naperville?
tssva 5y ago
Byte Information Exchange (BIX) and CompuServe were also good online resources in the pre-Internet era.

jasomill 5y ago

Additionally, when available, information was frequently of higher quality than is readily available online. Even today, it's probably easier to find detailed, accurate technical documentation for OpenVMS and z/OS — where developers can't just be expected to "Google it" — than it is for Windows, Linux, or Apple OSes. Moreover, pre-Internet, I never encountered a scenario where important documentation was only available in video form. At worst, you'd very rarely see consumer products bundled with a videocassette for users who couldn't be bothered to RTFM. Sharing information is certainly easier today, as magazines, user group memberships, long-distance BBS calls, and in-person conferences present a far more significant barrier to entry than the Web. The trend seems to be reversing, however, as more and more information once available over the Web now seems to be siloed in systems like Facebook and Discord that are neither searchable via Google nor regularly archived by the Internet Archive. What I wouldn't give for a "Usenet 2.0", i.e., a widely-used, persistent, open, distributed discussion system to reverse this trend.

a9h74j 5y ago

Anyone for the former Bits and Bytes bookstore in Naperville?

tssva 5y ago

Byte Information Exchange (BIX) and CompuServe were also good online resources in the pre-Internet era.